AP Twitter hack hits US markets

A fake tweet from the hacked Twitter account of American news agency Associated Press (AP) resulted in a sharp drop in US markets in afternoon trading on Tuesday.

The Dow Jones lost around 150 points, close to around 1 percent, after a tweet was sent claiming the White House had been attacked.

According to the tweet, two explosions had taken place at the White House and that President Barack Obama had been injured. A group claiming to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has taken responsibility for the hack.

Wall Street recovered to end the day up 152 points at 14,719. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq indexes were also hit by the tweet. Both indexes also managed to recover their losses with the S&P closing up 16 points at 1,579 and Nasdaq ending the day up 36 points at 3,269.